FRIDAY FOTO (September 17, 2021)

Happy Birthday U.S. Air Force

(U.S. Air Force Photo by Technical Sergeant Nicolas A. Myers)

An F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter — part of the  U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron the “Thunderbirds” — approaches the viewing area during the third and final day of the Cleveland National Air Show, on September 6, 2021 in Ohio.

Tomorrow, September 18, 2021 is the 74th birthday of the United States Air Force. The Department of the Air Force was created when President Harry S Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947. The first Secretary of the Air Force was sworn into office on September 18.

Between 1909 — when that the US military purchased its first aircraft — and 1947, the U.S. Air Force did not exist as a separate and independent military service organization, according to the Military.com website. The service went through a series of designations: Aeronautical Section, Army Signal Corps (1909); Aviation Section, Signal Corps (1914); United States Army Air Service (1918); United States Army Air Corps (1926), and United States Army Air Forces (1941).

After World War II, military and civilian leaders were convinced airpower was now a major element of the nation’s defense and deterrence, leading to the creation of a separate Air Force in the National Security Act of 1947.